The Islanders have if not the worst close to the worst attendance in the NFL.

The Islanders have if not the worst close to the worst attendance in the NFL.

Can you imagine how much time Rick DiPietro would spend on the IR if he were a quarterback?

Ha, my bad, but yeah absolutely.

If he were a backup QB more people would apparently care what he had to say as well.

ESPN would be all over this if it were Atlanta or Tampa or Miami etc etc.

What the hell is an Islander? Seriously though I don't know anything about hockey but isn't their owner talking about moving unless the taxpayers build him a new arena or some shit? Isn't there also two other hockey teams in NY?

I also don't get the obsession people on this board have with ESPN coverage. Why are you watching a national station for regional sports coverage? I almost never watch ESPN. I root for NY teams so I watch MSG and SNY.

The Islanders have been awful for years and play in a decrepit stadium that's not friendly to mass transit and a good hour drive outside the city. Not entirely fair to include them here as evidence of why NY is a bad sports town.

The Mets are still reeling from the Madoff scheme and have historically had up-and-down attendance records based on their success. They play out in Queens and have always been second fiddle to the Yanks.

On the other hand, the Giants, Jets, Knicks, Rangers, and Yankees have all been successful/consistently drawn big crowds.

So that makes one bad franchise, one middle-of-the-road franchise, and five of the most famous/successful/richest franchises in their respective sports.

Right.

but most Mets and Jets fans ARE dicks

The Islanders have been awful for years and play in a decrepit stadium that's not friendly to mass transit and a good hour drive outside the city. Not entirely fair to include them here as evidence of why NY is a bad sports town.

The Mets are still reeling from the Madoff scheme and have historically had up-and-down attendance records based on their success. They play out in Queens and have always been second fiddle to the Yanks.

On the other hand, the Giants, Jets, Knicks, Rangers, and Yankees have all been successful/consistently drawn big crowds.

So that makes one bad franchise, one middle-of-the-road franchise, and five of the most famous/successful/richest franchises in their respective sports.

Right.

ESPN would be all over this if it were Atlanta or Tampa or Miami etc etc.

I think the original point is this:



And that, like New York, or like any city, there are sometimes variables that account for bad attendance. And like this thread, any article about how Tampa is a bad sports city, or Seattle is a bad sports city, or whatever, is just uninformed and reductive. It doesn't just come from ESPN. It comes from a whole host of (stupid) sources, including people on this board. How many times have I seen this:

"The Rays aren't selling out their games! Tampa is a bad sports city!"

Except, strangely, the Mets' bad attendance in a city literally nine times the size of Tampa can be explained and excused by things like, "Well, they play in Queens" or "Well, they're second-fiddle to the Yankees" or even, "Well, the Yankees sell-out every game so fuck you," but when similar excuses are brought for Tampa--they play in a stadium that is an hour away from most of the population, or that there isn't a large group of young professionals in the area, or that most of the people are football fans, or that the Bucs and the Lightning still sell out consistently--the answer is still, "Well, they should be selling out, so therefore it's a bad sports city and the team should move." It happened with the Thrashers in Atlanta--they had attendance problems. Nevermind that Atlanta has a huge black population that, let's face is, isn't culturally inclined to go to a hockey game or that they have at best a 1/3 of the population of New York (and I don't even know where the stadium was). Now, granted, the Thrashers (like the Mets) didn't make the playoffs, while the Rays have been consistent contenders--so yes, there's room for nuance. I think it's fair to say that there isn't a large baseball community in Tampa. I think it's even fair to say that the owners have reason to move the team. Just like the Thrashers owners had reason to move the team. But Tampa isn't a bad sports town (it's not even a bad baseball town). Neither is Atlanta. Neither is New York.

I thought the Bucs were having attendance problems?

Well, yeah, when you go 4-12 and drop the final ten games or whatever, that happens. Also Tampa (and Florida in general), as I've said before, was one of the hardest-hit states by the recession because so much of the economy is based on tourism and service industries, so tickets in general are down across the state. But there was a wait-list for Bucs season tickets for decades in the mid 2000s, before the Glazers started to funnel money toward ManU instead and started putting a shit product on the field.

Like I said--there's always nuance.

Nuance is confusing. Couldn't we do without it?